Gabites, Owston Paul (b. Dec. 5, 1913, Timaru, New Zealand - d. July 15, 1993, Kent, England), administrator of Tokelau (1965-68). He was New Zealand high commissioner to Western Samoa (1965-68) and ambassador to France (1969-75) and the Holy See (1973-75).

Gaekwar, Fateh Singh Rao (b. April 2, 1930, Baroda [now Vadodara, Gujarat], India - d. Sept. 1, 1988, Bombay [now Mumbai], India), maharaja of Baroda (1951-71). Known as "Jackie Baroda," Gaekwar was the last of a family of princes that dated to his great-great-great-grandfather, who had inherited the princedom as a poor 13-year-old cousin from a distant village. Gaekwar himself (1951) inherited the title and wealth then estimated at £15 million when his father was deposed. Gaekwar was educated by English tutors and entered national politics in 1957, serving as a member of parliament for ten years. In the regional Gujarat government, he was (1967-71) minister of health, fisheries, and jails. Gaekwar, revolted after a two-month shooting safari in the Belgian Congo in the early 1950s, became an ardent conservationist, serving the World Wildlife Fund and establishing a zoo on the palace grounds. When Indira Gandhi abolished (1971) the titles and legendary privileges of Indian princes, Gaekwar protested but adapted. His palace was to be converted into a museum and arts centre.

Gafencu, Grigore (b. Jan. 30, 1892, Bucharest, Romania - d. Jan. 30, 1957, Paris, France), foreign minister of Romania (1938-40). He became publisher and editor of Argus, a leading Romanian economic journal, in 1924. As a member of the National Peasant Party he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1928. He was undersecretary of state for foreign affairs in the first two cabinets of Iuliu Maniu (1928-30 and 1932-33) and minister of industry and trade in the short-lived third (1933). After Maniu's final quarrel with King Carol II, Gafencu went back to journalism and founded Timpul, which became the best Bucharest daily. Of great intelligence and charm, he was known as the handsomest man in Romania. On Dec. 21, 1938, King Carol, by then dictator, appointed Gafencu foreign minister as a gesture to the Western democracies, but on June 2, 1940, he dropped him as an act of appeasement toward Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Appointed minister to the U.S.S.R., Gafencu remained in Moscow until June 22, 1941, then returned to Romania, which he soon left for Switzerland. His two books - Préliminaires de la guerre à l'Est (1944) and Derniers jours de l'Europe (1946) - are penetrating analyses of the events of 1939-41 and of Soviet-German relations in particular. After World War II, Gafencu moved to Paris and took some part in Romanian politics in exile. On Nov. 11, 1947, in Bucharest, he was sentenced in absentia to 20 years' imprisonment; on Feb. 20, 1948, he was stripped of his Romanian citizenship. He also lived in the U.S. for some time and gave lectures at New York University in the early 1950s.

Gafoor, Burhan (b. Oct. 20, 1965), Singaporean diplomat. He has been ambassador to France (2007-10), high commissioner to Australia (2014-16), and permanent representative to the United Nations (2016- ).

Gafurov, Bobodzhan (Gafurovich) (b. Dec. 31 [Dec. 18, O.S.], 1908, Isfisar village, near Khodzhent [now Khujand], Russia [now in Tajikistan] - d. July 12, 1977, Dushanbe, Tadzhik S.S.R.), first secretary of the Communist Party of the Tadzhik S.S.R. (1946-56). He was also first secretary of the party committee of Stalinabad oblast (1948-51).

Gair, George (Frederick) (b. Oct. 13, 1926, Dunedin, New Zealand - d. Aug. 17, 2015), New Zealand politician. He was minister of customs (1972), housing and regional development (1975-77), national and regional development and energy (1977-78), health and social welfare (1978-81), and transport, civil aviation, and railways (1981-84), high commissioner to the United Kingdom (1991-94), and mayor of North Shore City (1995-98).

Gairy

Gairy, Sir Eric (Matthew) (b. Feb. 18, 1922, St. Andrew's parish, near Grenville, Grenada - d. Aug. 23, 1997, Grand Anse, Grenada), chief minister (1961-62), premier (1967-74), and prime minister (1974-79) of Grenada. He formed the Grenada Manual, Maritime and Intellectual Workers' Union in 1950 and later the Grenada United Labour Party (GULP). He was minister of trade and production in 1956-57 and became chief minister and minister of finance in 1961. Charges of petty corruption led to his dismissal in 1962, but he and the GULP came back in 1967, and in 1974 he became Grenada's first prime minister after independence from Britain. He was accused of numerous human rights abuses, and a paramilitary band of thugs known as the "Mongoose Gang" terrorized his opponents. Gairy personally approved government spending and hiring decisions and granted contracts to his supporters. He responded to growing dissent with repression and restrictions on organized labour and the media. He took an interest in UFOs, once urging the United Nations to investigate them. He left Grenada for talks at the United Nations on UFOs on March 12, 1979. The next day, Maurice Bishop, of the opposition New Jewel Movement, took control of Grenada in a coup. The United States granted Gairy refuge, but quickly recognized the new People's Revolutionary Government. Bishop was assassinated, along with 10 other people, on Oct. 19, 1983. Six days later, U.S. Marines and paratroopers, along with a small regional force, invaded the island and ousted a Marxist junta that had seized power. Gairy returned home in 1984 and campaigned for his party. He told supporters he was a different man from the high-living "Uncle Gairy" who ran the island before the coup. But the GULP lost elections in 1984, 1990, and 1995.

Gaitskell

Gaitskell, Hugh (Todd Naylor) (b. April 9, 1906, London, England - d. Jan. 18, 1963, London), British politician. On the outbreak of World War II he joined the newly formed Ministry of Economic Warfare, and later became head of the intelligence section for Germany. When Hugh Dalton became minister in 1940, Gaitskell became his principal private secretary and in 1942 accompanied him to the Board of Trade as principal assistant secretary. He entered the House of Commons in 1945 as Labour member for South Leeds. In 1946 he became parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Fuel and Power and was made minister in 1947. After the general election of February 1950 Gaitskell became minister of state for economic affairs, and began to take some of the burden of work from the chancellor of the exchequer, Sir Stafford Cripps. On October 19 he was appointed to take Sir Stafford's place as chancellor of the exchequer. He left office when the Labour government was defeated in 1951. Gaitskell was chosen to succeed Clement Attlee as Labour leader in December 1955, in preference to two more experienced candidates, Herbert Morrison and Aneurin Bevan. He seemed discredited in 1959 when his party lost the general election, and in 1960 when the party executive, which opposed unilateral nuclear disarmament, was defeated on that issue at the annual party conference. At the 1961 party conference, however, he secured a reversal of the decision on nuclear weapons and then was able to reunite the party. In 1962, again at the party conference, he made a notable speech opposing Great Britain's entry into the European Economic Community (Common Market), for which the Conservative government was unsuccessfully negotiating. He remained party leader until his death.

Galindo Pohl, Reynaldo (b. Oct. 18, 1918, Sonsonate, El Salvador - d. Jan. 5, 2012, San Salvador, El Salvador), member of the Revolutionary Council of Government of El Salvador (1948-49). He was also culture minister (1950-56) and permanent representative to the United Nations (1967-77).

Gallardo (Lebrero), Ángel (Juan Pedro) (b. Nov. 19, 1867, Buenos Aires, Argentina - d. May 13, 1934, Buenos Aires), foreign minister of Argentina (1922-28). He was also president of the National Council of Education (1916-21), minister to Italy (1921-22), and rector of the University of Buenos Aires (1932-34).

Gallegos (Freire), Rómulo (Ángel del Monte Carmelo) (b. Aug. 2, 1884, Caracas, Venezuela - d. April 4, 1969, Caracas), president of Venezuela (1948). He won an international reputation as one of the leading novelists of South America. In 1936 he began a political career that eventually led to his inauguration to the presidency of Venezuela in February 1948. His government was overthrown by a military coup in November 1948, however, and he was sent into exile, but he subsequently returned in 1958 and was voted life membership in the Senate.

Gallegos Chiriboga, Luis Benigno (b. Dec. 13, 1946, Quito, Ecuador), Ecuadorian diplomat. He was chargé d'affaires in the United States (1979-80) and Bulgaria (1985-89), ambassador to El Salvador (1994-97), Australia (2005), and the United States (2005-11), and permanent representative to the United Nations (2002-05, 2005).

Gallin-Douathe, Michel (b. June 4, 1920, Limassa, Oubangui-Chari [now Central African Republic] - d. 1989), interior minister of the Central African Republic (1979). He was also ambassador to the United States (1960-62, 1965-70) and France (1970-72) and permanent representative to the United Nations (1960-70).

Gallo, Franco (b. April 23, 1937, Rome, Italy), finance minister of Italy (1993-94). He was also president of the Constitutional Court (2013).

Galtieri (Castelli), Leopoldo (Fortunato) (b. July 15, 1926, Caseros, Buenos Aires province, Argentina - d. Jan. 12, 2003, Buenos Aires), president of Argentina (1981-82). He rose steadily through the ranks of the Army and became Army chief in 1981. His two visits to Washington in that year were successful in achieving understanding between the U.S. and Argentina on foreign policy and economic planning. As Army commander, he was a member of the three-man junta under the presidency of Gen. Roberto Viola. Viola's ill health and the armed forces' dissatisfaction with his administration's policies led to his removal. Galtieri, with the support of newly promoted generals, was sworn in as president on Dec. 22, 1981. For the first time since 1978 the posts of president and Army commander were united. He made a number of statements on the need for a gradual return to civilian participation in government. This gained him some popular support, and that support grew enormously when, on April 2, 1982, he and his fellow junta members decided on the invasion of the Falkland Islands. It was a national ambition to make the islands a part of Argentina. To some extent, the invasion also diverted attention away from widespread anger over the military's handling of the economy and its refusal to provide information on thousands of desaparecidos, victims of the 1976-79 suppression of opposition. But the war with Britain ended with the surrender of Galtieri's forces on June 14, and he resigned as Army commander on June 17. He was soon replaced as president by Reynaldo Bignone. In his wake he left much recrimination and further instability within the ruling armed forces. He served four years of a life sentence but was freed in 1989 by a pardon from Pres. Carlos Menem; he was again arrested on July 11, 2002, on the basis that the amnesty was unconstitutional.

Galvis Galvis, Alejandro (b. Feb. 12, 1891, Curití, Santander, Colombia - d. June 17, 1981, Bucaramanga, Santander), war minister of Colombia (1942-43). The founder (1919) and long-time director of the Vanguardia Liberal newspaper, he was also governor of Santander (1930-31, 1944-46), president of the Senate (1936), minister to Mexico (1936-38), and ambassador to Venezuela (1943-44) and Spain (1969-70).

Gama, Antônio Pinto Chichorro da (b. April 1800, Nazaré, Bahia, Brazil - d. June 10, 1887, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), principal minister (1833-35) and finance minister (1834) of Brazil. He was also president of Espírito Santo (1831-32), Alagoas (1832-33), and Pernambuco (1845-48) and president of the Chamber of Deputies (1848-50).

J. Gama

Gama, Jaime (José Matos da) (b. June 8, 1947, Fajã de Baixo, São Miguel, Azores, Portugal), interior minister (1978) and foreign minister (1983-85, 1995-2002) of Portugal. He was president of the Assembly of the Republic in 2005-11.

Gambari, Ibrahim (Agboola) (b. Nov. 24, 1944, Ilorin [now in Kwara state], Nigeria), foreign minister of Nigeria (1984-85). He was also permanent representative to the United Nations (1990-99), president of the UNICEF Executive Board (1999), and UN special envoy to Myanmar (2007-09).

Gambarov, Isa, Azeri in full Isa Yunis oglu Qämbär (b. Feb. 24, 1957, Baku, Azerbaijan S.S.R.), acting president of Azerbaijan (1992). He was chairman of the National Assembly in 1992-93. In 2003 he was a presidential candidate.

Gambetta

Gambetta, Léon (Michel) (b. April 2, 1838, Cahors, Lot, France - d. Dec. 31, 1882, Ville-d'Avray, Seine-et-Oise [now in Hauts-de-Seine], France), French politician. In 1868, in a political case known as the Affaire Baudin, he delivered an extremely forceful speech in which he indicted the imperial regime. Press reports of his speech made his political fortune, and almost overnight he became an acknowledged leader of the Republican Party. In 1869 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly. He opposed the steps that led to the outbreak of the Franco-German War in July 1870, but, once it had begun, he urged the quickest possible victory over the Germans. He played a principal role in proclaiming the republic and forming a provisional government of national defense, in which he became interior minister. He began to arouse unoccupied France for the defense of the entire country. He became war minister as well, assuming virtually unlimited powers. Though he wished to continue fighting, the country was tired of war, and the provisional government signed an armistice on Jan. 18, 1871. The armistice convention provided for the election of a National Assembly, which met at Bordeaux in March 1871 to ratify the peace terms. He was elected a deputy for Strasbourg, in Alsace, but, after the ratification of the peace, which yielded most of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany, he lost his seat and retired for a short time to Spain. In by-elections in July 1871, he was elected to the National Assembly by the Seine département. With supreme skill, he managed to push ratification of the republic through a weary assembly. Parliamentary intrigue prevented him from being elected president of the republic, but he became president of the Chamber of Deputies (1879-81). He became prime minister and foreign minister in November 1881 but was overthrown in January 1882.

Gamsakhurdia, Zviad (Konstantinovich), Georgian Zviad (Konstantines dze) Gamsakhurdia (b. March 31, 1939, Tbilisi, Georgian S.S.R. - d. Dec. 31, 1993, Jikhashkari village?, Tsalenjikha district, Samegrelo region, western Georgia), president of Georgia (1991-92). A prominent dissident in Soviet times, he was arrested on April 7, 1977, and, on May 19, 1978, sentenced in Tbilisi to three years in a labour camp and two years' internal exile for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." After a public confession he was released from the labour camp in 1979. In November 1990 elections to the Georgian Supreme Council were won by nationalists and he became its chairman. In April 1991 independence was declared and he was given the new post of president. In May he won 87% of the vote in direct presidential elections. An armed rebellion began in September, and he was overthrown in January 1992. He escaped with members of his government first to Armenia (Jan. 6-15, 1992) and then to Chechnya, until he was able to move to Zugdidi, western Georgia, on Sept. 24, 1993. His supporters had started a rebellion in that region in August and made increasing territorial gains. With Russian aid, however, the Tbilisi government of Eduard Shevardnadze defeated Gamsakhurdia's forces, Zugdidi being taken on November 6. On December 31 he died under circumstances that are still unclear. The body was found with a single bullet wound to the head. The Russian agency Interfax reported his wife as saying that he had committed suicide to evade capture by pro-government forces. On Feb. 24, 1994, his body was reburied in the Chechen capital Grozny but on Jan. 26, 2004, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili rehabilitated him and promulgated a decree granting permission for Gamsakhurdia's body to be reburied in Tbilisi. He praised him as a "great statesman and patriot."

Gandalovic, Petr (b. Aug. 15, 1964, Prague, Czechoslovakia [now in Czech Republic]), Czech politician. He was mayor of Ústí nad Labem (2002-06), minister of regional development (2006-07) and agriculture (2007-09), and ambassador to the United States (2011-17).

Gandhi, Gopalkrishna (b. April 22, 1945), governor of West Bengal (2004-09) and Bihar (2006); grandson of Mohandas Gandhi. He was Indian high commissioner to South Africa and Lesotho (1996-97) and Sri Lanka (2000-02) and ambassador to Norway and Iceland (2002-04).

I. Gandhi

Gandhi, Indira (Priyadarshini),née Nehru (b. Nov. 19, 1917, Allahabad, India - d. Oct. 31, 1984, New Delhi, India), prime minister (1966-77, 1980-84) and foreign minister (1967-69, 1984) of India; daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru. Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri named her minister of information and broadcasting in his government. On Shastri's death in 1966, she became leader of the Congress party and thus also prime minister. After the March 1972 elections, her defeated Socialist opponent charged that she had violated the election laws. In June 1975 the High Court of Allahabad ruled against her, which meant that she would be deprived of her seat in parliament and would have to stay out of politics for six years. In response, she declared a state of emergency, imprisoned her opponents, and assumed emergency powers, passing many laws limiting personal freedoms. When long-postponed elections were held in 1977, she and her party were soundly defeated. Early in 1978 her supporters split from the Congress party and formed the Congress (I) - I for Indira - party. She was briefly imprisoned (October 1977 and December 1978) on charges of official corruption, but she won a new seat in parliament in November 1978 and Congress (I) began to gather strength. When new elections were held in January 1980, she was swept back into power in a landslide victory. All legal cases against her were withdrawn. When Sikh extremists in the Punjab used violence to assert their demands for an autonomous state, Gandhi ordered an army attack in June 1984 on the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the Sikhs' holiest shrine, which led to the deaths of more than 450 Sikhs. Five months later Gandhi was killed in her garden by a fusillade of bullets fired by two of her own Sikh bodyguards in revenge for the attack on the Golden Temple.

M. Gandhi

Gandhi, Mohandas (Karamchand), byname Mahatma Gandhi (b. Oct. 2, 1869, Porbandar [now in Gujarat], India - d. Jan. 30, 1948, Delhi, India), Indian political leader. While as a lawyer in South Africa, he witnessed the daily humiliations of Indians there and took up the fight on their behalf. In 1894 he founded the Natal Indian Congress and flooded the government, the legislature, and the press with closely reasoned statements of Indian grievances. He left South Africa in July 1914. In 1919 he launched a campaign of nonviolent struggle in India. He refashioned the old Indian National Congress into an effective political instrument of Indian nationalism. He was arrested on March 10, 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years' imprisonment. He was released in February 1924. One of his most spectacular and successful campaigns was directed against a salt tax (1930); it resulted in the imprisonment of more than 60,000 persons. A new chapter in Indo-British relations opened with the victory of the Labour Party in 1945. Prolonged triangular negotiations between leaders of the Congress and the Muslim League and the British government culminated in the formation of the two new dominions of India and Pakistan in August 1947. In 1946-47, the outbreak of communal riots between Hindus and Muslims unhappily created a climate in which Gandhi's appeals to reason and justice had little chance. When persuasion failed, he went on a fast. In September 1947 his fasting stopped the rioting in Calcutta, and in January 1948, he shamed the city of Delhi into a communal truce. A few days later, while he was on his way to his evening prayer meeting in Delhi, he was shot down by Nathuram Godse, a young Hindu fanatic.

R. Gandhi

Gandhi, Rajiv (b. Aug. 20, 1944, Bombay [now Mumbai], India - d. May 21, 1991, Sriperumbudur, near Madras [now Chennai], Tamil Nadu, India), prime minister of India (1984-89); son of Indira Gandhi. At first, Rajiv largely stayed out of politics, while his brother Sanjay, a vigorous political figure, was viewed as the heir apparent to the political dynasty that was founded by his grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru. But after Sanjay suddenly died in an airplane crash on June 23, 1980, Indira Gandhi, then prime minister, anxious to groom a successor, persuaded a reluctant Rajiv to enter the political arena. On June 15, 1981, he was elected in a by-election to the Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) from Amethi. In the same month he became a member of the national executive of the Youth Congress. During the following two years he became more deeply involved in and apparently more enamoured of politics. In February 1983 Indira appointed Rajiv party secretary. When his mother was killed on Oct. 31, 1984, he was sworn in as prime minister that same day. On November 12 he was unanimously named president of the Congress (I) Party. The December 1984 elections returned him to power in a landslide dwarfing any experienced by his mother or his grandfather. Gandhi's attempts to discourage separatist movements in Punjab and Kashmir backfired, however, and his government became embroiled in several financial scandals. In the November 1989 elections Congress (I) lost control of the Lok Sabha. Gandhi was campaigning in Tamil Nadu for upcoming elections in which he hoped to regain the prime ministership when he was killed by a bomb carried by a woman who may have been associated with Tamil separatists. The chief suspect and six associates killed themselves to avoid capture.

Gandhi, Sanjay (b. Dec. 14, 1946, New Delhi - d. June 23, 1980, New Delhi), Indian politician; son of Indira Gandhi; brother of Rajiv Gandhi. Heir apparent of India's leading political family, he began to play an increasing role behind the scenes when his mother used her power as prime minister to declare a state of emergency in 1975. He was widely thought to be a powerful but negative influence on his mother's policies. His campaigns for birth control and slum clearance aroused hostility, mainly because of the harsh methods he used to implement them. But his ruthless and willful approach was combined with undoubted political acumen, and he was responsible for many of the electoral gains of his mother's Congress (I) Party and his own Youth Congress early in 1980. There were serious doubts, however, about his respect for democratic institutions and the use he would make of the power he seemed certain to acquire. Gandhi died when the light aircraft in which he was flying crashed.

Sonia Gandhi

Gandhi, Sonia,née Maino (b. Dec. 9, 1946, Lusiana, Vicenza province, Italy), Indian politician. She met Rajiv Gandhi in 1965 and they married in 1968. She became an Indian citizen in 1983. Though she campaigned for him during his years in politics, Sonia chose to remain in the background. When Rajiv was assassinated in 1991, Sonia was seen by many as the natural heir to the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, and she was offered the leadership of the Congress (I) party. The party's elders had concluded that the right to assume responsibility for the party - and by implication India - was hers. She rejected the offer and remained at home in New Delhi, seldom appearing in public and refusing to discuss politics publicly. She did not visit Rajiv's former constituency in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, until 1993 - but the crowds cheered her. Subsequently, she traveled throughout the country on behalf of trusts and committees devoted to Indian public life. In May 1995 she finally broke her long silence and telephoned Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to urge him to allow two leading dissidents back into the party in time for the 1996 elections. In August she and her daughter, Priyanka, went to rural Amethi to dedicate a medical camp. There Sonia delivered an eight-minute address in which she praised Rajiv's dedication to the welfare of the people and expressed her anguish over the lack of progress into the investigation of his assassination. Resounding applause and shouts of anti-government slogans greeted this apparent criticism of Rao's leadership. In 1998 she agreed to enter politics and became president of the Congress party. She was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999. After her party won elections in 2004, she refused to take the post of prime minister, but did take over the ruling coalition. In 2006 she resigned as MP and as head of the National Advisory Council, a body set up to oversee the government's development program, after accusations that the two functions are incompatible under a 1959 law. In 2017 she passed the party leadership to her son Rahul.

Ganga, Dieudonné (Antoine) (b. 1945?), foreign minister of Congo (Brazzaville) (1992). He was ambassador to the United States in 1996-97.

Ganic, Ejup (b. March 3, 1946, Novi Pazar, Serbia), president of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1997-99, 2000-01). On March 1, 2010, he was arrested in London after Serbia had issued an extradition warrant over alleged war crimes; he was released on bail on March 11. The accusation related to an attack on a convoy of Serb-led Yugoslav soldiers who retreated from Sarajevo in May 1992 taking Pres. Alija Izetbegovic with them as a prisoner; Ganic was acting president during the less than two days that Izetbegovic was held.

Gapurov, Mukhamednazar (Gapurovich) (b. Feb. 15, 1922 - d. [killed] July 13, 1999), chairman of the Council of Ministers and foreign minister (1963-69) and first secretary of the Communist Party (1969-85) of the Turkmen S.S.R. He was also first secretary of the party committee of Chardzhou oblast (1959-62).

Gara, Jean-Robert (b. 1957, Antsiranana), governor of Antsiranana (2001-02). When the forces of Pres. Marc Ravalomanana took over, he fled to Moroni, Comoros. In 2003 he was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison for proclaiming the independence of his province during the 2002 political crisis.

Garang (de Mabior), John (b. June 23, 1945, Wagkulei village, near Bor, Upper Nile region, Sudan [now in Jonglei state, South Sudan] - d. July 30, 2005, near New Cush, Eastern Equatoria state, Sudan [now in Namorunyang state, South Sudan]), Sudanese rebel leader and politician. He joined the Anya Nya rebellion, which had been started by the non-Muslim southerners at the time of Sudanese independence in 1956. They sought the secession of the non-Islamic southern provinces from the Islamic north. After the fighting ended in 1972, Garang joined the national Army and was later promoted to chief of the Military Research Center with the rank of lieutenant colonel. The imposition of Shari`ah (Islamic law) in The Sudan by Pres. Gaafar Nimeiry in September 1983 proved the focus of major discontent in the south of the country. Shortly afterward Garang formed the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in opposition to Nimeiry's rule and to the introduction of Shari`ah in particular. The SPLM manifesto declared its opposition to all forms of military rule and its support of democratic parliamentary government. The movement did not call for secession of the south but favoured a unified country with a non-military government and sought the support of both Muslims and Christians in the war against Nimeiry. The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the military wing of the SPLM, was welcomed by two of Nimeiry's most hostile neighbours, Libya and Ethiopia, which gave it arms and allowed SPLA bases on their territories. When Nimeiry was overthrown in 1985, however, Garang refused to end his fight and join the interim government because of its military involvement. For the same reason, he refused to allow the SPLM to participate in the 1986 elections for a new civilian government. He insisted on the abolition of Shari`ah as a prerequisite for a ceasefire. His forces gathered strength throughout the south. In 2005 he signed a peace agreement by which he became first vice president (the first southern Sudanese to hold this position since independence) and also president of a newly-created Government of Southern Sudan. Only three weeks after assuming those positions he was killed in a helicopter crash.

Garba, Joseph Nanven (b. July 17, 1943, Langtang [now in Plateau state], northern Nigeria - d. June 1, 2002, Abuja, Nigeria), foreign minister of Nigeria (1975-78) and president of the UN General Assembly (1989-90). He spent nearly two decades in Nigeria's military before serving as foreign minister under consecutive military regimes led by Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo. He went on to become Nigeria's permanent representative to the United Nations (1984-89) and chaired a UN committee dedicated to fighting South African white-minority rule.

B. Garba Jahumpa

Garba Jahumpa, (Musa) Bala (b. July 20, 1958, Bathurst [now Banjul], Gambia), foreign minister of The Gambia (2006-07, 2014-15); son of Ibrahima Momodou Garba-Jahumpa. He was also minister of finance and economic affairs (1994-95, 1995-97), trade, industry, and employment (1995), works, construction, and infrastructure (2003-06), information and communication infrastructure (2012), health and social welfare (2012-14), and works and transport (2015-16, 2016-17), acting high commissioner to the United Kingdom (1999-2001), and ambassador to Cuba (2003), Venezuela (2007-12), and Spain (2012).

Garbai, Sándor (b. March 6, 1879, Kiskunhalas, Hungary - d. Nov. 11, 1947, Paris, France), chairman of the Central Executive Council (1919) and of the Revolutionary Government Council (1919) of Hungary. He was also education minister (1919).

García (Pérez), Alan (Gabriel Ludwig) (b. May 23, 1949, Lima, Peru), president of Peru (1985-90, 2006-11). He won his first political victory in 1980 when he gained a seat in the lower house of Congress. Two years later he became general secretary of the Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA). In the 1985 presidential election, his opponents criticized his lack of political experience, and certainly he had no experience of governing. To his supporters, however, this very weakness became a strength, and certainly he did not bow to the customary pressures of the military and (more recently) the international bankers. He won a conclusive victory in the April 14 election. He narrowly missed winning outright with 48% of the vote, but the runner-up, Alfonso Barrantes Lingán of the Marxist Izquierda Unida party, conceded defeat, thus saving a second round of voting. García, who was sworn in on July 28, became the first elected president to succeed another democratically chosen candidate in Peru in more than 40 years. He was also the first APRA leader to take office as president, despite APRA's being the country's oldest political party. After taking office García became extremely visible both at home and abroad. García turned Peru into an international financial pariah with galloping hyperinflation of 7,650%, challenged the International Monetary Fund, and announced he would limit Peru's debt payments to 10% of exports. He scored 80% popularity ratings before slumping to rank as one of the country's least-loved leaders by the time he left office with the economy in a shambles and Shining Path guerrillas on the rampage. After spending much of his time since 1992 in Bogotá, Colombia, he returned to Peru in January 2001 to launch a reelection bid which he lost to Alejandro Toledo. He won, however, in 2006, defeating Ollanta Humala in a runoff. Running again in 2016, he only came fifth.

García Carneiro, Jorge Luis (b. Feb. 8, 1952, Caracas, Venezuela), defense minister of Venezuela (2004-05) and governor of Vargas (2008- ). He was also minister of social development and popular participation (2005-07).

García Granados, Jorge (b. April 21, 1900, Villa Nueva, Guatemala - d. May 3, 1961, Santiago, Chile), Guatemalan presidential candidate (1950); grandson of Miguel García Granados. He was also president of the National Congress (1945), ambassador to the United States (1945-47) and Israel (1955-56), permanent representative to the United Nations (1947-48), and minister to the United Kingdom (1956-57).

García Medina, Amalia (Dolores) (b. Oct. 6, 1951, Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Mexico), governor of Zacatecas (2004-10); daughter of Francisco E. García. She was also president of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (1999-2002).

García Meza

García Meza Tejada, Luis (b. Aug. 8, 1929, La Paz, Bolivia - d. April 29, 2018, La Paz), president of Bolivia (1980-81). He was a general leading the 6th Division of the Bolivian Army when, on July 17, 1980, he staged the 189th coup in 155 years of Bolivian independence. A three-man junta consisting of himself, Gen. Waldo Bernal, commander of the Air Force, and Rear Adm. Ramiro Terrazas, the Navy commander, forced Pres. Lidia Gueiler Tejada, then the only woman leader in Latin America, to resign. Twenty soldiers, armed with automatic weapons, had burst into a room in the Quemado Palace where she was meeting with her cabinet. Saying "There will be no electoral adventures in this country," García installed himself as president. Elections on June 29 had failed to produce a clear winner, and it was decided that Congress would choose the president on August 4. The military, whose presidential candidate had placed third in the national balloting, anticipated that Hernán Siles Zuazo, a leftist, would be elected and acted to prevent him from taking office. It claimed that the popular elections were "fraudulent" and that Siles was a Communist. García promised to transform the backward nation into "a modern and industrial society." A few days after he took power, dissident tin miners and peasants stormed an army barracks, but they were beaten back after a five-hour battle. There were numerous arrests throughout the country, and foreign journalists were detained. He has been in jail since 1995 after he was sentenced to 30 years for genocide, torture, and killing of political opponents under his regime.

García Robles, Alfonso (b. March 20, 1911, Zamora, Michoacán, Mexico - d. Sept. 2, 1991, Mexico City, Mexico), Mexican diplomat. He entered Mexico's foreign service in 1939 and was a delegate to the 1945 San Francisco Conference, at which the United Nations was founded. He subsequently joined the UN Secretariat, serving as director of the Division of Political Affairs until he returned to his country's diplomatic corps in 1957. As director general for Europe, Asia, and Africa in the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the late 1950s, García Robles played a central role at the Law of the Sea conferences. While serving as ambassador to Brazil (1961-64), he first encountered the proposition of excluding nuclear armaments from Latin America, but the initiative was soon abandoned by the formulators of the idea - the presidents of Brazil, Ecuador, and Bolivia. Alarmed by the implications of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, he revived the proposal and later persuaded the Mexican government to support such a policy. His unremitting efforts eventually led to the Treaty of Tlatelolco (1967), which committed 22 nations of Latin America to bar nuclear weapons from their territories. A year later he helped draft the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. He was Mexico's permanent representative to the United Nations (1970-76) and foreign minister (1975-76). In 1977 he was appointed permanent representative to the Disarmament Conference in Geneva, and in 1978 he served as chairman of the Mexican delegation to the UN General Assembly's special session on disarmament. He continued to take an active role in subsequent special sessions devoted to a world disarmament campaign. He was the corecipient (with Alva Reimer Myrdal of Sweden) of the Nobel Prize for Peace for 1982.

García y García, José Antonio (b. 1832, Lima, Peru - d. Nov. 2, 1886, Lima), foreign minister of Peru (1876-77). He was also chargé d'affaires in Colombia (1862-65) and the United States (1865-66), minister to the United States (1867-69), mayor of Lima (1872), and president of the Senate (1878-79).

Gardiner, James G(arfield), byname Jimmy Gardiner (b. Nov. 30, 1883, Farquhar, Ont. - d. Jan. 12, 1962, Balcarres, Sask.), premier of Saskatchewan (1926-29, 1934-35). As a Liberal he won a by-election to the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly in June 1914 and soon made his mark as a competent debater. After being appointed to the provincial cabinet in 1922, he succeeded Charles Dunning as premier in 1926. He gave his province efficient and progressive government, but the unscrupulous methods of a powerful political machine, which he built up, and abuses in political patronage developed under it antagonized so many voters that his party lost the 1929 election. Thereafter he spent five years as the vigilant leader of the opposition until he was returned to power in 1934. The following year, however, he resigned to become federal minister of agriculture and was elected to the dominion House of Commons for Melville. Gardiner was minister of agriculture for 22 years during W.L. Mackenzie King's and Louis Saint Laurent's ministries. He dealt with federal agricultural assistance during the Great Depression of the 1930s and with problems relating to World War II (1939-45). He was a staunch supporter of the cooperative wheat pools of the prairie provinces and a resolute opponent of protective tariffs. In 1947 he was appointed to the Imperial Privy Council and in 1948 he made an unsuccessful attempt to replace King as Liberal leader. Reelected to the House in 1957, Gardiner resigned his portfolio when the Liberal ministry resigned. He was defeated in the 1958 general election.

Gardner, Anthony William (b. 1820, Virginia, U.S. - d. 1885), president of Liberia (1878-83). He was also attorney-general (1848-55) and vice president (1872-76); when Pres. Joseph Jenkins Roberts became very ill and left for England for medical treatment in June 1875, he was appointed acting president.

Gardner, John W(illiam) (b. Oct. 8, 1912, Los Angeles, Calif. - d. Feb. 16, 2002, Stanford, Calif.), U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare (1965-68). A trailblazing advocate of democratic participation and volunteerism, his public service had by 1964 earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was secretary of health, education and welfare at the height of Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society program and the cabinet's token Republican. He resigned in 1968 after concluding Johnson should not run again. His accomplishments ranged over decades and across disciplines, but it was his founding of Common Cause that perhaps best captured his intellectual-activist impulse. "We are going to build a true 'citizens' lobby - a lobby concerned not with the advancement of special interests but with the well-being of the nation," Gardner said in 1970 as he introduced a group that quickly became significant in national politics. As its membership swelled to hundreds of thousands of members, the nonpartisan group wielded tremendous political clout, helping reform the nation's campaign finance laws. Among other posts, Gardner was chairman of the National Urban Coalition, as well as the National Civic League. In 1980 he co-founded Independent Sector, an organization that encouraged volunteerism.

Gardom

Gardom, Garde (Basil) (b. July 17, 1924, Banff, Alberta - d. June 18, 2013, Vancouver, B.C.), lieutenant governor of British Columbia (1995-2001). A strong supporter of Premier W.A.C. Bennett's Social Credit Party, Gardom was elected to the provincial legislature from the constituency of Vancouver-Point Grey in 1966, 1969, 1972, 1975, 1978, and 1983. He was appointed attorney general in 1975 and became British Columbia's first minister of intergovernmental relations in 1979. He was an outspoken advocate for public accountability and participated in a number of legislative measures including the ombudsman, auditor-general, right to sue the crown, expropriation, criminal injuries compensation and family relations statutes, the inception of Hansard, a broadened legislative committee system, and the televising of debates. After retiring from politics, he served (1987-92) as agent-general for British Columbia in the United Kingdom and Europe, based in London. In 1995 he was rewarded for his service to the province and appointed lieutenant governor by Canadian Governor-General Roméo LeBlanc. During his tenure in office, Gardom once again showed his commitment to reform, refusing to wear the elaborate lieutenant governor's uniform and opening up his official residence to the public.

J.A. Garfield

Garfield, James A(bram) (b. Nov. 19, 1831, near Orange, Cuyahoga county, Ohio - d. Sept. 19, 1881, Elberon [now part of Long Branch], N.J.), president of the United States (1881). An advocate of free-soil principles, he soon became a supporter of the newly organized Republican Party, and in 1859 he was elected to the Ohio legislature. During the American Civil War he helped recruit the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry and became its colonel. He fought at Shiloh (April 1862), served as chief of staff in the Army of the Cumberland, saw action at Chickamauga (September 1863), and emerged as a major general of volunteers. In 1862 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served until 1880. As chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, he advocated a high protective tariff and, as a Radical Republican, sought a firm policy of Reconstruction for the South. In 1880 the Ohio legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate. At the Republican convention the same year in Chicago, the delegates were sharply divided between supporters of James G. Blaine and Ulysses S. Grant. Garfield, present as the chairman of the Ohio delegation, led a coalition of anti-Grant delegates who succeeded in rescinding the unit rule, by which a majority of delegates from a state could cast the state's entire vote. This rule change doomed Grant's candidacy, and on the 36th ballot the nomination went to Garfield. In November, with a popular plurality of less than 50,000 votes, he was elected. On July 2, 1881, after only four months in office, he was shot at the railroad station in Washington, D.C., by Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker. For 80 days Garfield lay ill and performed only one official act - the signing of an extradition paper.

Garin, Vasco Vieira (b. June 23, 1907, Lisbon, Portugal), Portuguese diplomat. He was minister to India (1949-55), permanent representative to the United Nations (1956-63), and ambassador to Canada (1956-59) and the United States (1964-71).

Garner, John N(ance) (b. Nov. 22, 1868, Blossom Prairie, Red River county, Texas - d. Nov. 7, 1967, Uvalde, Texas), speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1931-33) and vice president (1933-41).

Garotinho, Anthony, original name Anthony William Matheus de Oliveira (b. April 18, 1960, Campos, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil), governor of Rio de Janeiro (1999-2002) and Brazilian presidential candidate (2002). He was a soccer commentator who changed his name to Garotinho ("little boy") after the success of his radio program, "The Garotinho Show." He was elected state legislator in Rio de Janeiro and mayor of Campos. Following a near-fatal car crash in 1994, he converted to evangelist Protestantism and his speeches acquired a messianic tone reminiscent of the pulpit. With the support of the politically influential evangelist community he was elected governor in 1998 with 58% of the vote. He targeted the poor by providing cut price meals at so-called "people's restaurants," building 35,000 affordable homes, and giving badly-off families a monthly "citizen's cheque." At the same time, he balanced the books and renegotiated Rio's debt. The approach won him high approval ratings, but his time in office was marked by allegations of serious corruption and wrangles with his coalition partners. As presidential candidate in 2002 he attempted to extend his winning formula to the national level, but his popularity did not reach much further than Rio and evangelical voters, and he won only 18% of the vote.

Garret Ayllón, Julio (b. May 22, 1925, Sucre, Bolivia - d. March 19, 2018, Sucre), foreign minister (1979-80) and vice president (1985-89) of Bolivia. He was also ambassador to the U.S.S.R. (1969-73), Czechoslovakia (1973-74), and Argentina (1995-97) and president of the Senate (1982-85).

Á. Garrido

Garrido (García), Ángel (b. April 7, 1964, Madrid, Spain), president of the government of Madrid (2018- ).

Gasana, Anastase (b. Aug. 5, 1950, Gikomero, near Kigali, Rwanda), foreign minister of Rwanda (1993-94, 1994-99). He also served as ambassador to the United States (1994) and permanent representative to the United Nations (2001-03). He served as one of the negotiators and signatories of the 1993 Arusha Peace Agreement.

Gasche

Gasche, Urs (b. March 15, 1955, Bern, Switzerland), president of the government of Bern (2003-04, 2007-08).

Gates, Robert M(ichael) (b. Sept. 25, 1943, Wichita, Kan.), U.S. director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1991-93) and defense secretary (2006-11). He joined the CIA in 1966, left it in 1974 to join the staff of the National Security Council, but returned to the spy agency in 1979 and became deputy director in April 1986; he served as acting CIA director from Jan. 29, 1987, when William Casey left office, to May 26, 1987, when William Webster was sworn in. He was first nominated to head the CIA by Pres. Ronald Reagan in 1987 but withdrew when he was accused of knowing more than he admitted about the Iran-contra affair. From Jan. 20, 1989, he served as assistant to Pres. George Bush and deputy national security advisor. Bush appointed him CIA director on May 14, 1991; the Senate confirmed the appointment November 5, and he was sworn in November 6. He was the only career officer in CIA history to rise from entry-level employee to director of central intelligence. He left government service in 1993. In 2006 he was involved in bipartisan discussions on Iraq as a member of the Iraq Study Group before he was nominated defense secretary by Pres. George W. Bush. He was maintained in office by Pres. Barack Obama in 2009, becoming the first defense secretary to serve under two presidents of different parties.

T. Gates

Gates, Thomas (Sovereign, Jr.) (b. April 10, 1906, Germantown, Pa. - d. March 25, 1983, Philadelphia, Pa.), U.S. secretary of the navy (1957-59) and secretary of defense (1959-61). In October 1953 he was appointed undersecretary of the navy. Upon the resignation of Charles S. Thomas as secretary of the navy, Gates was appointed to succeed him by Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower on March 1, 1957, and the Senate confirmed his appointment on March 22. Gates was instrumental in retiring battleships in favour of nuclear-powered submarines and in promoting nuclear missile experimentation. As secretary of defense, he overhauled Pentagon management procedures and helped the department's transition to modern tactics and weaponry, including supersonic jets, tactical atomic bombs, and long-range ballistic missiles. Gates was also remembered for authorizing the ill-fated U-2 reconnaissance flight of Francis Gary Powers. When the latter was shot down (May 1, 1960) deep inside the Soviet Union, Gates advised Eisenhower to accept responsibility for the mission. Eisenhower awarded Gates the Medal of Freedom. In 1976 Pres. Gerald Ford called Gates out of retirement to act as chief of the U.S. liaison mission in Beijing.

Gatti

Gauck

Gatti, Gabriele (b. March 27, 1953, San Marino), secretary of state for foreign and political affairs (1986-2002) and for finance (2008-10) and captain-regent (2011-12) of San Marino.

Gauci, Victor J(oseph) (b. April 25, 1931, Sliema, Malta), Maltese diplomat. He was permanent representative to the United Nations (1978-85), high commissioner to Australia (1987-91) and New Zealand (1988-92), and ambassador to Japan (1987-95), South Korea (1988-95), and China (1994-95).

Gauck, Joachim (b. Jan. 24, 1940, Rostock, Germany), president of Germany (2012-17). In 1990-2000 he was commissioner for the records of the former East German Ministry of State Security ("Stasi").

Gaulle, Charles (André Joseph Marie) de (b. Nov. 22, 1890, Lille, France - d. Nov. 9, 1970, Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, Haute-Marne, France), president of France (1959-69). At the outbreak of World War II he commanded a tank brigade attached to the French 5th Army. On June 6, 1940, he entered the government of Paul Reynaud as undersecretary of state for defense and war, and he undertook several missions to England to explore the possiblities of continuing the war. When the Reynaud government was replaced by that of Marshal Philippe Pétain, who intended to seek an armistice with the Germans, de Gaulle left for England. On June 18, he broadcast from London his first appeal to his compatriots to continue the war under his leadership. On Aug. 2, 1940, a French military court tried him and sentenced him in absentia to death. Broadcasts from London, the action of his Free French Forces, and the contacts of resistance groups in France either with his own organization or with those of the British secret services brought national recognition of his leadership. But full recognition by his allies came only after the liberation of Paris. On Sept. 9, 1944, he and his shadow government returned from Algiers to Paris. He headed two successive provisional governments but, on Jan. 20, 1946, abruptly resigned. In April 1947 he formed the Rally of the French People (Rassemblement du Peuple Français; RPF), a mass movement that grew rapidly in strength. He became dissatisfied with the RPF, however, and in 1953 severed his connection with it. In 1955 it was disbanded. He emerged again in 1958, becoming premier in June. On Dec. 21, 1958, he was elected president of the Republic. He was reelected on Dec. 21, 1965, though only on the second ballot. On April 28, 1969, following his defeat in a referendum, he resigned.

Gaulle, Pierre (Julien Joseph Marie) de (b. March 22, 1897, Paris, France - d. Dec. 26, 1959, Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris), president of the Municipal Council of Paris (1947-51); brother of Charles de Gaulle.

Gautrey, Peter (b. Sept. 17, 1918 - d. Feb. 7, 2014), British high commissioner of Brunei (1972-75). He was also high commissioner to Swaziland (1968-71) and Guyana (1975-78) and ambassador to Suriname (1976-78).

Gautsch

Gautsch von Frankenthurn, Paul Freiherr (Baron) (b. Feb. 26, 1851, Döbling [now part of Vienna], Austria - d. April 20, 1918, Vienna), prime minister of Austria (1897-98, 1904-06, 1911). He entered the imperial Ministry of Education (1874) and was director of the Theresianum military academy, where most of the officers of noble birth received their education. He served as Austrian minister of education in the cabinet of Eduard von Taaffe (1885-93); when that cabinet resigned, he went back to the military academy as director until he again became minister of education in the cabinet of Kasimir von Badeni (1895-97). His title of baron was conferred in 1889. With the fall of Badeni, he was appointed prime minister (November 1897), but the failure of his proposed reform of the Bohemian language laws prompted his resignation (March 1898). After several years as president of the government accounting office, Gautsch von Frankenthurn was recalled to the post of prime minister (Dec. 31, 1904), but again his ministry foundered, this time because of suffrage reform (May 1906). He was recalled once more in June 1911, but his third ministry expired after a few months. Ever faithful to the imperial summons, he remained, until the death of the emperor Franz Joseph I, one of the most trusted servants of the crown.

Gavard, Alexandre (b. March 25, 1845, Perly-Certoux, Genève, Switzerland - d. Nov. 29, 1898, Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France), president of the Council of State of Genève (1883-84, 1885-86, 1887-88, 1897-98) and president of the Council of States of Switzerland (1887-88).

Gavillet, André (b. Sept. 25, 1924, Lausanne, Switzerland - d. July 14/15, 2014, Lausanne), president of the Council of State of Vaud (1975).

Gaviria Trujillo, César (Augusto) (b. March 31, 1947, Pereira, Colombia), president of Colombia (1990-94). He entered politics in 1970 as a Pereira councillor. He became mayor of Pereira in 1974 and during the same year was elected representative for Risaralda. His first cabinet experience came in 1978, when Pres. Julio César Turbay Ayala appointed him vice-minister of development. In 1985-86 Gaviria managed the election campaign for Virgilio Barco Vargas and was rewarded with the post of minister of finance and public credit. Having ensured the passage of agrarian-reform and tax-reform bills through Congress, he was appointed minister of the interior in 1987. In that post he gained direct experience in dealing with terrorism, negotiating the demobilization of the M-19 guerrilla group and its participation in legal politics. In February 1989 he resigned to be presidential campaign manager for Luis Carlos Galán of the Liberal Party. He was thrust into the limelight when he took over the mantle of Galán, who was assassinated Aug. 18, 1989, at a political rally. He was elected the candidate for the Liberal Party on March 11, 1990. On May 27, he was elected president with 47% of the vote and an ample margin of 1.3 million votes over his nearest rival. However, the campaign had been marred by violence and murder; three presidential candidates lost their lives as a result of the terrorism that gripped the country. Nevertheless, there was enthusiasm for Gaviria, who at 43 was the youngest president of Colombia in decades. In a reversal of previous policy, he offered drug traffickers immunity from extradition to the U.S. and large reductions in prison sentences if they surrendered to the authorities. After his presidency he was secretary-general of the Organization of American States (1994-2004).

Gavril (b. 1921 - d. March 4, 1996, Skopje, Macedonia), archbishop of Ohrid, head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church (1986-93). He attempted to resign on several occasions beginning in December 1991, but his resignation was not officially accepted by the Holy Synod until June 1993.

Gaymard, Hervé (b. May 31, 1960, Bourg-Saint-Maurice, Savoie, France), French politician. He was minister of agriculture, food, and rural affairs (2002-04) and of economy, finances, and industry (2004-05). He resigned the latter post after it was revealed that he was renting a 600-sq-m apartment just off the Champs-Élysées in Paris for 14,000 euros ($18,460) a month at taxpayer's expense.

Gayoom

Gayoom, Maumoon Abdul (b. Dec. 29, 1937, Male, Maldives), president of Maldives (1978-2008). His first important government appointment was that of manager of the republic's Shipping Department, after which he was appointed director of the Telephone Department. By 1974 he had established his reputation as an able administrator and was appointed special undersecretary in the office of the prime minister. He was then sent as a deputy ambassador to neighbouring Sri Lanka. In 1976, he was appointed Maldives' permanent representative to the United Nations. On his recall to Male in 1977, he was appointed minister of transport, and in 1978 was nominated as presidential candidate by the Citizens' Majlis (parliament), winning a record 92.9% of the popular vote in the referendum. He was reelected in 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, and 2003, but defeated in 2008.

Gbagbo, Laurent (Koudou) (b. May 31, 1945, Mama village, near Gagnoa, central Ivory Coast), president of Côte d'Ivoire (2000-11). He was arrested on March 31, 1971, for being involved in unauthorized political activities. After his release in January 1973, he was posted to work in the education department. Stung by the political "bug," he secretly formed the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) in 1982 before he went into exile in France where he was granted asylum in 1985. In 1988, he returned to Côte d'Ivoire for the FPI inaugural congress during which he was elected secretary general. In the October 1990 presidential race, Gbagbo was thoroughly defeated by the country's post-independence leader, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who obtained 89% of the vote. Gbagbo received 11%. He won a seat to the National Assembly during the November 1990 parliamentary elections. He was arrested in Abidjan on Feb. 18, 1992, following a demonstration organized by his party against government actions, which degenerated into riots. He was tried under the anti-riot law, and sentenced to three years imprisonment but was granted a presidential pardon six months later. In October 1995, Gbagbo refused to run for the presidency, saying it "lacked transparency." In October 2000, he won elections over incumbent Robert Guéi, who tried to proclaim himself the winner but after street protests had to give up power. A rebellion by soldiers who were recruited during Guéi's rule started in September 2002. Although Guéi was killed in the capital, the rebels were successful in the north. They said Gbagbo's government had treated them like "slaves" and they were rebelling against "dictatorship hiding under the guise of democracy." French troops and UN peacekeepers were deployed, but the conflict continued. His presidential term was prolonged for five years, until new elections were finally held in October-November 2010. This time it was him who dubiously insisted he won, while the consensus of the international community was that he lost to Alassane Ouattara, who set up a parallel government. Gbagbo maintained himself in power until being captured by Ouattara forces (supported by French and UN troops) in April 2011. He was charged with economic crimes in August. In November he was transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity; his trial began Jan. 28, 2016.

Gbehanzin (throne name), personal name Kondo, praise name Xadakogundo (b. 1844 - d. Dec. 10, 1906, Blida, Algeria), king of Danhome (1889-94). He was deposed by the French on Dec. 3, 1893, but only captured on Jan. 26, 1894.

Gbeho

Gbeho, (James) Victor (b. Jan. 12, 1935, Keta, Gold Coast [now Ghana]), foreign minister of Ghana (1997-2001) and president of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States (2010-12). He was permanent representative of Ghana to the United Nations in 1980-90.

Gbenye, Christophe (b. 1927, Bas-Uélé district, Orientale province, Belgian Congo [now Congo (Kinshasa)] - d. Feb. 2/3, 2015, Kinshasa, Congo [Kinshasa]), interior minister (1960, 1961-62, and in the Antoine Gizenga rebel government in 1960-61) and deputy prime minister (1962-63) of Congo (Léopoldville), and president (1964-65) and chairman of the Revolutionary Government (1965) of the People's Republic of the Congo. He fled the Congo in November 1964 and lived in exile in Kampala, Uganda, in 1966-71.

Gbezera-Bria, Michel (b. 1946, Bossangoa, Oubangui-Chari [now Central African Republic]), foreign minister (1977-78, 1988-90, 1996-97) and prime minister (1997-99) of the Central African Empire/Republic. He has also been minister of civil service, labour, and social security (1976-77), public works and social security (1978-79), justice (1987-88), and presidential affairs (1999-2001), permanent representative to the United Nations (1983-87), and ambassador to France (2015- ).

Gbujama

Gbujama, Shirley (Yema) (b. Sept. 20, 1936), foreign minister of Sierra Leone (1996-97). She was also ambassador to Ethiopia (1972-76), permanent representative to the United Nations (1976-78), and minister of tourism and culture (1996) and social welfare, gender, and children's affairs (1998-2007).